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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24640054">Truths</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightandLife123/pseuds/LightandLife123'>LightandLife123</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Ruewen Chronicals [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:55:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,706</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24640054</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightandLife123/pseuds/LightandLife123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Grady and Edaline have a heart to heart.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Edaline Ruewen/Grady Ruewen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Ruewen Chronicals [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768045</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Truths</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grady and Edaline lay side by side looking up at the stars hands entwined. It had been the most perfect day Edaline could remember. The two had been seeing each other consistently for several months. Every day with him felt like an adventure. Sometimes they went back to wander around the sanctuary or went to her grandparents house to help rehab and train new animals, especially if a really interesting species arrived. They had gone on several dates hiking in the Himalayas where they ended up rock climbing up cliffs nearly dying in the process. She was pretty sure Grady would actually be dead if he hadn’t been able to levitate quickly enough. They also spent time with large groups of their friends organizing game nights and scavenger hunts. Their friends had come to expect truly entertaining events if Grady and Edaline were in charge of the planning. But today had just been the two of them, and Edaline was so thankful. </p>
<p>     Grady had been away on an assignment from the council for nearly 2 weeks and Edaline was embarrassed to admit how much she had missed him. Sighing happily she scooted closer to him so that their heads were touching. His thumb was drawing smooth circles on the back of her hand, there was a warm breeze, and the gentle sound of crickets filled the air. Edaline had almost fallen asleep when Grady turned and whispered right in her ear. “I really missed you, Eda.” Before kissing her on the crown of her head. Edaline was suddenly wide awake. She rolled over so  that her arm draped across his chest and she gave him a quick kiss along his jawline. <br/>“I missed you so much it hurt.” She whispered because saying it any louder then that would have felt too vulnerable. Grady pulled her soundly on his chest and she felt his deep rumbling laugh more than she heard it. </p>
<p>“That’s a relief. I’m expecting you to get tired of me any day now.” She rolled her eyes but squeezed him tighter in reassurance. </p>
<p>    “l know you really aren’t supposed to say, but will you tell me something about what you were doing for the past two weeks.” She raised up on her elbow to look down at his face. “Pleaseee.” </p>
<p>“You know I wish I could, but I’m just not allowed to.” He said pushing back a piece of her hair behind her ear. “It’s not that I don’t trust you! What if they probe my head and see I told you? It’s really not as exciting as you’re imagining it to be.” She continued pouting at him and he laughed. “How about this for a compromise? I give you 3 truths free of charge as long as they don’t pertain to my assignment.” </p>
<p>   Truths had become a sort of game they had started “playing" a little over a month ago. If one of them lost a bet or did something particular stupid, the other person got to ask them a question (or a few based on the wager) and it had to be answered with complete honestly. The questions had started out as kind of funny or silly like ‘would you rather never get to eat mallowmelt again or have to eat dirt once a day for a month’ or ‘what is the most ridiculous prank you pulled at Firefox’. But recently they had been much deeper like ‘how many kids do you think you want’ and ‘who is your favorite relative and why? Edaline had the perfect question. It was actually one she had been trying to work up the courage to ask for a while now but she would go easy on him for the first 2 questions and save that one for last. </p>
<p>  “Ok.” She said sitting up so she could look down at him and gage his expressions when he asked the questions. “Would you rather be able to speak to animals or be able to speak all the languages of intelligent species?” </p>
<p>  Grady scoffed at her. “You really wasted one of your truths on that? Easy. I’d rather speak to animals. Next time give me a challenge.” He said resting his hands on his chest and closing his eyes, but the smile on his face remained. </p>
<p>    “Fine.” Edaline said. “I was going to go easy on you these first 2 questions but now you’re asking for it.” She was quiet for a moment trying to think of what she could ask as her middle question. “Ohhh!! I have it.” Suddenly excited. She has been wondering the answer to this for a long time. “Who were you hiding from when I found you in the storage closet at my Winnowing Galas and why?” Grady squirmed a little and Edaline had a triumphant smile. Grady sat up so that he was facing her and then looked down at the grass and started to pull some of the blades.</p>
<p>  “I’m not sure if I want to get into all that today.” He said quietly but Edaline was not going to let him get off that easily.</p>
<p> “You shouldn’t have made fun of my first questions then.” But when he still didn’t say anything she grabbed one of his hands and said quietly, “You can tell me anything. I promise I won’t make fun of you. About this at least. I won’t promise to never make fun of you again because then I would be living a tragic half life.” That made Grady give a small smile and tighten his grip on her hand.</p>
<p> “His name is Makota Blaine and he made my last 4 years at Firefox absolute hell.” This was not what Edaline had been expecting. Grady was so strong and bold and confident. She couldn’t imagine him avoiding someone out of shame or fear. She always thought he had been hiding out to avoid getting in a fight with someone especially now that she knew him better and knew he had a temper. Grady was still holding her hands but wasn’t looking at her. He seemed really upset. So Edaline asked quietly, “What would he do?” Grady ran one of his hands through his hair trying to compose himself before he began. </p>
<p>   “Makota and I started out as kind of rivals at the beginning of school. We had different friend groups and we were always competing to be near the top of our class. It was really all fine until I manifested. I was in ability detecting one of the last days in my fourth year and I was feeling desperate to manifest. Most of my friends already had their abilities and I was really feeling the pressure. The teacher was having us all go around the room screaming. I think to see if any of us were Vociferators and I had a horrible headache and I just lifted my hands and yelled ‘would everybody just stop!’ And the crazy part was that they did. No one could physically speak for another 20 seconds, and so there it was. I was a mesmer. I was so excited. It was all I could talk about during summer break. I would finally have a specialized class and start to learn an ability. But then 5th year came around and it just all seemed to fall apart. My mentor wasn’t even a mesmer. He was a beguiler because there are so few Mesmers and Lady Britta refused to mentor me until I was elite level. And then, all of a sudden, everyone at the school was afraid of me. I think most of it started from Makota. He told people that I had been hiding my power for a while and had been going around controlling people all the time. He and his friends would do dumb stuff like start food fights or trip people in the hall and then when they would get in trouble they would claim that I had forced him to do it.  I would get dragged up to the principal's office for questioning. Other people caught on and soon no matter what happened in the school I was blamed for it.</p>
<p> Finally, one day I cornered him after study hall and he was so snarky and condescending that I punched him and broke his nose. I was suspended for a week and when I came back it felt like everyone was afraid of me. Only a few of my friends stuck by my side. Everywhere I went people stared and moved out of the way. And the way the younger students looked at me like I was a monster; it just hurt.” Edaline swallowed hard, feeling so guilty. She has been one of the students. When she was a 1st year and he was a 6th she had believed the rumors that spread through the school. She couldn’t believe she had been so wrong about him. And there was more.</p>
<p>      “When we reached elite level it got better for a while. I thought we would all be so busy with our studies that Makota forgot but then he spread the worst rumor yet. There was a girl I kind of liked at the time. We had flirted and kissed a few times but nothing serious. Then, one day Makota convinced everyone that I had forced her to do things with me by mesmerizing her. And he spread all these rumors that I had forced her into all these inappropriate situations when we really had only kissed. The worst part was that then the girl started to doubt me when she was asked about it by the mentors. She said she didn’t know and that I might have mesmerized her but she was unsure because she didn't know what it felt like. Her dad came up to the school and basically tried to kill me. I had to consent to a telepath going through my memories to prove my innocence. It was so incredibly embarrassing because the telepath had to look at all the times I had flirted with Carice or thought of her. The worst part is that Makota never got in trouble for any of them. He was a master at spreading rumors that everyone repeated; the rumor could never really be traced back to him. </p>
<p>        That’s why I was avoiding him at your Winnowing Gala because I despise him and knew if we came face to face I would have lost my temper. I didn’t want to ruin your big gala not to mention my mother never would have forgiven me. So that’s it.” He said with a shrug trying to put on a smile but it only stayed for about a second and he continued to look at the ground. Edaline scooted over so that she was sitting next to him and pulled his head down on top of hers running her fingers into the hair on the back of his head and massaging his scalp. </p>
<p>“Grady,” She said her voice thick. “I am so sorry that happened to you. But I know you aren’t any of those things. You are funny, thoughtful, considerate, protective and yeah you have a temper but you never let it get the best of you. You are one of the best people I know and those things people said about you in the past aren’t true.” </p>
<p>   “But Edaline sometimes they are.” He said his voice shaking and Edaline was shocked to see tears in his eyes. She had never seen him cry before. “The things I have to do sometimes on assignments are all the things people say about me. They are manipulative and cruel and conniving and a lot of times I just really hate it but then someone tells how valuable my work is and I chicken out and don’t quit when sometimes I think I should.”</p>
<p> Edaline started to say something but he stopped her. “No you need to hear these things if you think that you want to continue things with me. After school, I stared down a dark path. My experiences at  made Foxfire me bitter so I did just start using my powers inappropriately. Counselor Bronte pulled me aside one day and made me see reason but that was only a few months before we met and sometimes I’m still trying to figure it out.  Being with me will always have its drawbacks. I’ve known I needed to have this talk with you for a while but I haven’t been brave enough. I’m sure by now you’ve heard the joke 100 times ‘Are you sure you really want to hang out with him or is he just mesmerizing you?’ And while it’s usually a joke there are people who will actually believe it to be true. My ability is not one people trust and people see it as dark and dangerous. There are even those who think it should be banned. Some of those stigmas rub off on you every time people see us together and I am so sorry for that. You don’t deserve for people to say those things about you because everyone is naturally drawn to your kind spirit. You are such a good listener and friend. Everyone who knows you adores you and I’m sure a lot or people are wondering why you spend so much time with me.” Some of his tears were actually slipping out now and Edaline’s heart broke. She pulled him fiercely to her and hugged him as tightly as she could. </p>
<p>   “I spend time with you, Grady, because I want to because I really really like you. From now on, I plan on telling that to anyone who suggests otherwise even if it is a joke. And if there are still people who don’t like seeing us out together it doesn’t matter because they are not worth our time. They don’t really know you because if they did they would understand how wonderful you are. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve introduced you to one of my friends or family members  at a party and then they hail me the next day to tell me how much they liked you. Grady, you are one of the best people I know and I feel my most safe and peaceful when I am with you. I don’t care what other people think so that’s that.” Grady clung to her for a while longer trying to get his breathing back to normal as Edaline rubbed calming circles on his back. He finally pulled back to look at her, eyes glistening. He placed his hand on her cheek.</p>
<p>     “You are truly the most remarkable person I have ever met.” She leaned forward so their foreheads touched before she said. </p>
<p>      “Back at you.” Grady closed his eyes, finally looking calm again. Eventually he lay back down on the grass pulling her with him so that she was tightly in his arms firm against his chest hearing his heartbeat in her ear. A few minutes later he cleared his throat before he began.</p>
<p>      “Sorry that got so heavy and emotional. I wasn’t expecting to go there tonight. I think I technically still owe you one more truth if you want to ask me anything else.” Edaline smiled.  She could save her big question for another day.</p>
<p>       “I think you've paid your penance.  And don’t apologize for getting upset. It was completely justified but it’s going to take way more than that to get rid of me.” Grady chuckled “I’m glad to hear it. And as much as I hate to say it I should probably let you go home. It’s pretty late and we don’t want anyone spreading rumors that I’m keeping you from your beauty sleep.” </p>
<p>   Edaline sighed. “You’re probably right. But don’t worry. If I hear any such rumors I’ll make sure people know that I was here under my own free will.”  Grady’s smile shone bright in the moonlight making Edaline’s stomach flip. She didn’t understand how it was possible for a person to be so incredibly handsome. Her whole body felt like it was floating in a cloud when pulled her close for a kiss and said, “How did I get so lucky?”</p>
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